Chapter 15
GRIFFIN
This weekend was nothing like I’d expected. For one, I’d assumed that Phoebe and I wouldn’t be alone for too long. And I definitely assumed the house was much bigger.
“Which ones are your favorite?” Emma asked.
“The chicken,” I replied. Whatever marinade she’d used was really good and gave the meat a sweeter taste that I quite liked.
“Mine too,” Phoebe said.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Even though I’d jacked off while thinking about her in the shower like a damn teenager, I was still on edge. I still wanted her.
I needed to find a solution for tonight.
There was no way in hell I could sleep next to her.
I could try the floor—actually, no. I’d be no good tomorrow with a stiff body.
I’d wait until Emma and Jude went to sleep, then go downstairs to the living room.
Tomorrow morning, I’d come up with an excuse.
“Want another drink?” Jude asked me.
I shook my head. “I’m fine.” I definitely didn’t want my judgment clouded around Phoebe.
She seemed far more relaxed than I was. I couldn’t believe she’d taken everything in stride. Frankly, I was stunned that she’d agreed to it at all. But as her best friend had put it, she really needed something to take her mind off that asshole. And I’d volunteered for that job.
After we finished dinner, we stayed out for a while longer, as the weather was just perfect. Gradually, I began to relax as well. Emma and Jude were recounting the details of their latest trip to Egypt. Phoebe was listening with rapt attention, asking pertinent questions.
“You’d like to visit the pyramids,” I concluded.
She batted her eyelashes. “Well, yeah. If this doesn’t count as a hint, I don’t know what will.”
She smiled at me before focusing on Emma again. She was so good at playing her role.
That’s right, Griffin. It’s just a role. Get yourself together.
But my dick was definitely not getting the memo. It had been clouding my fucking judgment ever since I saw her in that bikini on the boat.
“Where did you last travel?” Emma asked Phoebe, who looked at me warily. I nodded, gesturing for her to speak.
Whenever an unexpected question popped up, the easiest way was to let one of us talk. The other could just agree to the story.
“We haven’t had any time to travel,” Phoebe said, which was smart because we didn’t have to come up with fake details.
“Both of us have been pretty busy with work,” I added.
“We wholeheartedly recommend traveling,” Jude said. “I sometimes take weeks off so we can spend as much time as needed in a new destination. If there’s anything I’d have done differently when I was younger, it would have been to travel more.”
“Oh, honey! We’re making up for it now in spades,” Emma said. “We didn’t really have that much money back then, and with the kids, it was easier to just visit local destinations for a quick getaway.”
“True, true,” Jude said, looking from Phoebe to me. “But Phoebe here looks like she’d enjoy traveling.”
She turned to me, grinning. I straightened in my seat, leaning into her and kissing her temple. “Hint taken,” I said.
I’d go with her on a world tour if she wanted to.
Oh wow. That was a dangerous thought. Relationships were not my thing. Never had been. All my life, my focus had been entirely on Sterling Investments, then growing my own portfolio of businesses.
Phoebe was made of something different. She wanted marriage and a lot of other things I couldn’t give her. I had to make damn sure I remembered that later tonight.
She yawned after a while. “Goodness, it’s very late.”
To my astonishment, it was eleven o’clock. Their stories about Egypt had taken up most of the evening, but I’d enjoyed them.
“All right, we’ll go to bed. You youngsters can stay out here for as long as you want,” Emma said. “It’s a good thing you insisted on us putting everything in the dishwasher after we finished eating.” She winked at Phoebe, who laughed.
“I always do that. Marshall used to say—” She stopped midsentence, throwing me a panicked look.
Damn it.
“I had a roommate for a long time,” she said slowly.
“And he was an asshole,” I added. That was 100 percent true.
“Well, anyway, I always want to get the dishes out of the way before relaxing.”
“It’s a good strategy,” Emma said, winking at her. “We’re early risers. I get up at 5:00 a.m.”
Fuck me. I’d planned to sleep on the couch and head upstairs before they woke up.
“Good night,” Jude said as they went inside the house.
I waited for a bit before turning to Phoebe.
“You want to go up too?” She yawned again. “It’s pretty late.”
I glanced behind me. I didn’t see anyone moving inside the house, but I knew they’d come out soon to use the bathroom.
“Let’s go upstairs, and we can talk.”
She nodded.
I stood up abruptly, pulling her chair back, and she stood as well.
She walked slightly in front of me. On instinct, I put a hand on the small of her back. There was no reason for it whatsoever. We were completely alone. She didn’t pull away, though. If anything, she pressed herself into my fingers as if she couldn’t get enough of my touch.
If she knew everything I wanted to do to her…
We went up the narrow staircase. “Be careful where you step,” I warned. There was a night-light along each step, but it wasn’t nearly enough for someone who wasn’t familiar with the house.
Once we entered the bedroom, I closed the door. It was pitch-dark except for the sliver of moonlight coming through the window, but I didn’t make any move to turn on the light.
“Phoebe, I have a plan.”
“All right,” she whispered.
“I’m going to stay here until I’m certain that they’ve gone to sleep. Then I’ll go down to the couch. Tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up before them.”
“But Emma said she wakes up at five.”
I cleared my throat. “I heard her. That’s going to hurt like a bitch.”
Phoebe laughed softly.
“I’m going to set my alarm clock before that and go for a run.”
She furrowed her brow. “Wait, you’ve got running gear with you?”
“Yeah. I figured it’d be a good idea to bring it. That’s my go-to when I need to release tension.”
There was a brief pause, and then Phoebe murmured, “Griffin, that’s insane. We agreed that the bed is big enough.”
“Yes, but that was before—” I caught myself in time and stopped talking. What the hell was I going to say? “Before I jacked off”?
“Before what?” she pressed.
I swallowed hard. “Before dinner.”
She stepped closer. “What changed?”
I didn’t say anything for a few beats, considering my words. “Things are blurring, Phoebe. For me.”
With a heavy sigh, I decided to be completely honest. “I don’t know how it is for you, but I can’t be in the same room with you…” I couldn’t finish my thought. It was one thing to open up, another thing altogether to be graphic about it.
“I heard you earlier,” she said, “in the shower.”
I took in a deep breath, stepping closer. I’d tried to be silent. I’d told myself there was no way she could hear.
“I apologize. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t. It made me want to burst through that door and join you.”
The full weight of her words didn’t hit me right away, but when it did, my entire body became a live wire.
“Fuck, Phoebe.” I brought my hands to her face, tilting her head back slightly. Her eyes glinted from the moonlight. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes. That’s why I hurried downstairs.” She laughed softly. “Didn’t want to give in to temptation.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “I should go downstairs. Tell me to go.”
“No,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to go. I want you here with me. I want you.”
I stepped closer until there was maybe an inch between our bodies. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“What do you mean exactly? I need you to tell me in your own words. Sleeping next to you or—”
“With me.” Even though her voice was breathy, it was also strong. There was no hesitation.
“Phoebe, you’ve had a few glasses of wine.”
“Not too much,” she said quickly. “I didn’t want to risk forgetting our stories or getting things messed up.”
She started to shake lightly. “Just this once.”
And that gave me the permission I needed. Because it could only be this once. We were too different for more.
I brushed my hand over her lips, and she opened her mouth slowly.
I pushed my thumb in, and when I felt her tongue on the tip, I nearly lost my composure.
I pulled my thumb back out and kissed her, exploring her slowly, parting her lips and giving her my tongue.
She whimpered against my mouth, and I moved my hands to the sides of her body, then her back, sliding them down to her ass.
When I pushed her against me, she whimpered again. I loved that she was so damn wound up.
I wondered how many strokes of her clit it would take to make her come. She needed this release badly, I realized. I’d had mine earlier in the afternoon, but she’d been holding this tension in her body for much longer. I needed to know how long exactly.
I moved my mouth in a straight line to her earlobe. “Since when have you wanted me, Phoebe?”
“Since you kissed me the first time.”
Oh fuck. That made my erection painfully hard. “Did the kiss make you wet?”
“Yes.”
New plan: I was going to explore her slowly, but only after she came once.
Cupping the back of her head, I captured her mouth again. With my other hand, I bunched her dress until my fingertips brushed her inner thigh. Then I moved farther up to her panties.
She held her breath as the muscles in her thighs clenched. I slowly pushed her panties down just past her ass, then covered her pussy with my palm. She was so damn wet. She moaned, gripping my shoulders.
“Can you keep quiet?” I asked.
Phoebe trembled in my arms. “I don’t think so.”
I didn’t think that either. But the guest room was on the opposite side of the house from the master bedroom, and on another level. There was no way in hell they were going to hear anything.